(Bloomberg) -- Sony Group's hot run of comic-book films showed its limits after “Morbius,” a dark movie with a blood-sucking antihero, delivered less than half of the opening weekend ticket sales of last year's “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.”
The movie, which tells the origin story of villain Doctor Michael Morbius, generated $39.1 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, Sony said in an email Sunday. That was below the $40.2 million that researcher BoxOffice.com had forecast. Sony projected $33 million going into the weekend before upping its forecast to as much as $41.5 million on Saturday.
“Morbius” trailed the opening weekend of Warner Bros. gritty “The Batman,” which took in $128.5 million in its domestic debut last month, as well that of Sony's “Venom” sequel, which brought in $90.1 million last year. Sony's “Spider-Man: No Way Home” grossed a pandemic-era record of $260 million in its December opening weekend.
Key Insights
- Just 17% of critics recommended “Morbius” according to review aggregator site RottenTomatoes.com, with one critic calling it a “huge letdown.” Audiences were more generous, giving it a score of about 69%. The film, which saw its original summer 2020 release date delayed several times due to the pandemic, was only available in theaters.
- Sony developed “Morbius” in collaboration with Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel unit. Oscar-winner Jared Leto stars in the first time the character has appeared in a film. “Morbius” had a modest -- by superhero film standards -- budget of $75 million.
- Superhero films have been the one dependable draw during the pandemic, attracting an audience of older children and young adults that were more comfortable than others returning to cinemas.
- Future April debuts include “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” from Paramount and “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” from AT&T Inc.'s Warner Bros., as the industry continues its return to theaters and tests filmgoers' appetites for doing the same.
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